


The Babysitting Job

by Vicky



Category: Leverage
Genre: Babysitting, F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 23:06:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5434220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vicky/pseuds/Vicky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little girl brings the team back together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Babysitting Job

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> This fic was written for the 2015 Leverage Exchange Secret Santa. 4es's prompt was: "The Leverage team face their worst threat yet, a little girl." I hope you'll like your fic!

They had staged a miracle, taken down a corrupt politician or two, stolen the Dagger of Aqu’Abi from each other – and a final time together -, even stolen a whole country, and managed to beat the Steranko once, but they had yet to face this situation.

Eliot had already forfeited and had sought refuge in the kitchens, as far away as possible from the back rooms as he could without leaving the building. Hardison had considered doing the same, but he didn’t want to leave Parker alone with the crying little girl.

How they ended up with her in the first place, none of them could really say.

Well, if you asked Eliot and Hardison, they would say that it was Parker’s fault. Their latest client had been in a car accident and had no one to take care of her 20 month old daughter. Before Eliot and Hardison could stop her, Parker had already said that they would take care of it. It might have not been her intention to take the little girl with them, but their client had understood it that way, and Parker hadn’t had the heart to take back her words.

It had all happened a couple of hours ago, and ever since they had taken her, the girl hadn’t stopped crying for her mother. They had tried everything they could but nothing had worked. She didn’t want to eat, she didn’t need to be changed, she refused to lie down for a nap, and she wasn’t at all interested by the cartoons Hardison had put on the screens. They had even tried rocking her, but it had only served to intensify her cries.

Logic dictated that she would cry herself to sleep. The only problem was that they couldn’t see it happening any time soon. In the meantime, they had a job to do, and Parker insisted that they did it.

It was easier said than done; Hardison could barely hear himself think. Luckily for him, hacking into their mark’s servers had been quite easy. Ironically, their mark was a security company.

“Alright, I’m in and I found evidence that they’re responsible for Mallory Pollack’s car accident,” Hardison shouted to Parker to be heard over the girl’s cries. “There are e-mails from the head of security to the CEO saying that they’re taking care of the problem.”

“They knew that she was a potential whistle-blower,” Parker said, reading the e-mails. “We’ll forward these to the police once we’re done with them. I’m sure they’ll love that. What about our case?”

“I don’t have anything yet about the robberies. But given what they tried to do to Mallory, I can say without doubt that they’re involved. People trust them with their homes, and they don’t hesitate to rob them during their absences.”

“That won’t last much longer,” Parker assured him. “If you can’t find anything on their servers, we’ll have to go in.”

“Not with her, we can’t,” Hardison reminded Parker, pointing to the toddler.

“I’m sure she’d love to repel down a building. Hey, maybe that’ll calm her down,” she said, with a smile.

“Listen, I love you, babe, but that’s a big no.”

“No to what?” Eliot asked, coming back to the room with a bottle.

It would probably not work, but it was worth a try. And she ought to be hungry at one point.

“Parker wants to repel down a building with the girl strapped to her.”

“What is wrong with you?” Eliot replied.

“What? I’m sure she’ll like it.”

Eliot narrowed his eyes at Parker; sometimes he really didn’t understand her. She was a friend, family even, but there were times he wondered what was going on in that head of hers.

Returning his mind to the reason he came for in the first place, he put down the bottle next to the little girl. She stopped crying for a moment, looking at it, and he really thought that she was going to take it, but then, she resumed crying. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and counted to ten.

“I called them,” he said, after a moment.

“What? Why?” Parker exclaimed. “We’re doing just fine without them.”

“No, we’re not,” Eliot said.

“He’s right. We might not need them for the con, but someone has to take care of her while we’re doing our job. We can’t leave her alone, or take her with us. How long until they get here?” Hardison asked.

“Another couple of hours. They took the first available flight.”

“Good. Now, Parker, what’s the plan?” Hardison asked, turning towards the thief turned mastermind.

“I have the perfect idea,” she said, her lips stretching into a smile as she looked at the toddler.

“That doesn’t involve her,” Eliot added as he followed her line of sight.

“Oh… I might need some time, then.”

 

###

 

When Nate and Sophie entered the brew pub, Amy spotted them and walked towards them. She handed them two cups of coffee before they could say anything.

“You’re going to need them,” she just said, and then she gestured them to continue on their way to the back rooms.

“Should we be worried?” Sophie asked.

“We’ll know soon enough.”

As they approached the door leading to the back rooms, they couldn’t hear a sound. It worried them as, from what Eliot had said on the phone, they had expected to hear cries. But there was none of that.

Nate pushed the door open, wondering what they would find on the other side.

The first thing they noticed was the little girl asleep on a blanket in a makeshift playpen. Either she had cried herself to sleep or they had managed to calm her down. Given the traces of dried tears on her face, the former was the most likely.

The team was nowhere in sight. Hardison’s laptop was gone, the screens were dark and silence filled the room.

“They left her alone?” Sophie asked, her voice low enough not to wake the sleeping toddler.

“They’re around,” Nate replied, sure of himself. “They’re smarter than that.”

His eyes found the security camera in the corner of the room and he waved at it, certain that the Hacker was watching on the other side.

Sure enough, the team was soon walking down the stairs to join them on the ground floor.

“Eliot shouldn’t have bothered you,” Parker said once they greeted each other.

“He didn’t,” Sophie assured her.

“I did say that you could call if you needed us,” Nate added. “And it sounded like you needed it.”

“We do,” Hardison. “None of us knows how to take care of a child, and on top of that we have employees of a security company involved in robberies of houses they have under their protection.”

“Do you need help with that?”

“No,” Parker quickly answered Sophie’s question. “If you can just take care of the girl, we can manage the rest.”

Nate locked eyes with the Thief’s for a moment, and they shared a smile. He had known he was making the right choice when he groomed her to be the new Mastermind of the team. This was her show, her team, now, and she didn’t him or Sophie to tell them what to do.

“I’m sure of it,” Nate said. “So, what’s her name?” he asked, turning to the sleeping child.

Hardison and Eliot looked at Parker who looked back without saying a word.

“Dammit Parker!” Eliot said, keeping his voice low. “You didn’t ask her name?”

“Wait, I think her mother told me after you two left the room. It’s…” she trailed off, trying but failing to remember.

“You can’t remember her name. Great!” Eliot said.

“And neither of you asked Parker for her name in the hours since she’s been with you?” Sophie asked, raising an eyebrow

“We… I mean… I… That is… No,” Hardison concluded when he couldn’t come up with a better answer, and Eliot chose to stay silent.

The Grifter rolled her eyes at them; sometimes, she really felt like they were children and she and Nate were the parents. But even when knowing that, she would have never thought that a child would be their undoing. It’d be better if the enemies they had made over the years never found out, or the team would be done for.

“Give me your client’s phone number,” Sophie said. “I’ll call her to ask and to reassure her that her daughter is well cared for.”

Hardison handed her the information and she walked to the other side of the room, leaving Nate with the team. Before leaving, though, she sent him a look that told him he should talk some sense into the team.

“How’s married life treating you?” Hardison asked.

“Great,” Nate answered, his lips stretching into a large smile.

“You finally settled on a place to live?” Parker asked.

“We’ve decided on New York. It’s the best place for Sophie to have her own theatre company. As for where exactly, we’re still negotiating.”

“Meaning that Sophie will ultimately be the one to decide,” Eliot said.

“Exactly,” Nate replied, chuckling. “So, tell me, Parker. What prompted you to offer your babysitting services?”

“Our client had no one to leave her baby to.”

“That’s what DCFS is here for. I’m sure they could have found her a nice family to take care of her while her mother is in hospital.”

“But what if they couldn’t?” Parker replied, her voice small and childlike.

And that was the root of the problem, Nate realised. Parker hadn’t had the happiest childhood in foster care, and it was reasonable that she didn’t want the little girl – they really needed to find out her name – to go through that, even if it would have been for a few days.

“I get it,” he said. “But you should have called us, sooner.”

“In our defence, we thought we were handling it,” Hardison said, to which Eliot rolled his eyes. “We were wrong, but who could have thought she’d cry for that long?”

“Anyone who ever was in the presence of young children, before,” Eliot said. “Didn’t I tell you two that it was a bad idea? Didn’t I?”

The three of them started bickering, turning away from Nate and completely ignoring him. He sighed, the scene before him being an all too familiar one to him; when they weren’t on a job, Parker, Hardison and Eliot could act like siblings who barely stood each other.

In her playpen, unnoticed by the team, the little girl started to stir up. She opened her eyes and sat up. A few feet from her, she saw people she still didn’t recognize and she started crying again. Her sobs caught the adults’ attention, and Nate approached the playpen, crouching before her.

“Hello,” he said, in a voice that the team had never heard him use before. “I’m Nate. What’s your name, darling?”

“Sara,” Sophie answered for the toddler. “Her name is Sara. Mama says hi,” she said, crouching next to Nate.

“Mama?” Sara asked, in between sobs.

“Yes, Mama. She loves you very much, and she’ll be with you very soon. But until then, you’ll stay with Nate and me, ok?”

After a moment, Sara nodded. Sophie and Nate looked at each other and smiled.

“You’re really good with children, Sophie,” Parker remarked.

“She was afraid, that’s all. She needed to be reassured.”

“We’ve got it, now, guys. You can go back to your work,” Nate said.

Left alone with Sara, Nate and Sophie stood up. The little girl followed them with her eyes, and raised her arms to be picked up. Nate obliged, and with his thumb, he dried the last tears on her cheeks.

“All better, now,” he said. “Are you hungry?” he asked, eyeing the full bottle in the playpen; it would have never been enough for her, anyway.

“Yes,” Sara answered.

“What about some fries?” Nate asked and she nodded enthusiastically.

“I think that’s a yes,” Sophie replied. “I could eat something, too,” she admitted.

“Let’s see what the kitchen staff can do for us,” Nate offered.

The three of them left the back rooms, and went to sit at the bar of the pub, Sara on Nate’s lap. Amy noticed them and walked towards them.

“Hello again. And hi you,” she said towards Sara, who hid her face in Nate’s chest. “She’s cute. What can I do for you?”

“Sara would like some fries, and Sophie and I will have today’s specials,” Nate replied.

“One order of fries and two specials coming right up.”

“When you’re done with your fries, Sara,” Sophie said, catching her attention, “we’ll go see Mama. She misses you a lot.”

This made Sara happy and she clapped her hands excitedly.

“But first, it’s time to eat,” Nate reminded her.

He bounced her lightly on his knee and she giggled.

Hearing her laugh made him think of Sam, and as always, he felt a pinch in his heart. He thought about him every day, and even more so when he was around children. He tended to avoid these situations, but today, he couldn’t abandon the team when they needed him.

Sophie, knowing where his thoughts went, put a hand on his arm and squeezed lightly. He turned towards her and reassured her, with a look, that he would be fine.

“Do you want to see a magic trick, Sara?” Sophie asked, and the girl nodded. “Nate…”

Her husband sighed exaggeratedly. He handed Sara over to Sophie, and once the girl was seated comfortably, looking at him expectantly, his hand reached behind her ear. When it came back into view, he was holding a coin, and the girl smiled in amazement. He did it again with her other ear, pleased that he was making her happy.

Taking care of Sara might hurt Nate but, at the same time, it made him think back of happier times with his son. He cherished them, but he rarely shared them with anyone else than Maggie. Looking at Sophie, now, as she was tickling Sara, he realised that it was high time that he shared them with her.

Maybe Sara would love a bedtime story, tonight.

Fin.


End file.
